Carbs (carbohydrates) cause a lot of confusion – unnecessarily so – we need them – like a car needs fuel, to help our body work effectively. So you have probably heard of ‘good’ or ‘bad’ carbs. Keep it simple, don’t beat yourself up about them. General rule of thumb a portion of wholegrain (bread, rice, pasta), a sweet potato, oats etc are going to help your body work (alongisde other food groups), fruit and veg also count as carbs (of a different type). Eating these won’t cause you a huge problem – unless you overeat (think double helpings). We NEED them to function.
Ever been on a low/no-carb diet and felt low and tired – yep that’s the lack of carbs… An athlete monitors their intake to ensure they have enough in the system for training and not too many on rest days. Think like that – a bit less on non-exercising days, and stock up on veg and a bit of fruit. The problems only come in when you go for the comfort factor – that’s when you generally go for sweets, cakes and what would be classed as ‘bad’ carbs. You don’t actually need them but carbs fuel Serotonin (the happy hormone) in the brain…..you see a pattern yet? If you eat ‘good’ carbs then you don’t have that loss of energy (because you have fuel) and you don’t feel low (the good ones also hit the happy hormone). Don’t deprive yourself – the odd ‘cheat treat‘ won’t cause you a problem as long as it’s an occasional treat….